Farmingdale State - 75; Sarah Lawrence - 62
BRONXVILLE, N.Y. | Senior forward
Layla Mendoza (Westhampton Beach, N.Y.) led all scorers with 27 points Tuesday night, lifting the Farmingdale State College women's basketball team to its second-straight Skyline Conference win with a 75-62 triumph at Sarah Lawrence College.
Fifteen of Mendoza's points came in a first period in which the Rams (7-10, 5-7 Skyline) jumped out to a 25-9 lead, and never looked back. The host Gryphons (5-12, 5-7) opened the scoring with a 3-pointer before FSC scored the next nine points of the contest to establish a lead that it would never relinquish. After SLC pulled to within an 11-7 margin midway through the quarter, the Rams finished with a 14-2 run -- including eight-straight points by Mendoza to start the spurt -- to hold its 16-point advantage 10 minutes in. Farmingdale State's defense forced 11 turnovers by the host in the opening period, and converted the miscues into 15 points to establish its double-digit lead.
Midway through the second quarter, Sarah Lawrence sliced the FSC lead to 10 points at 32-22, before Mendoza and sophomore guard
Adrianna Romo-Leroux (Selden, N.Y.) stopped the spurt with back-to-back layups to push the visitors' lead back to 14. For the third time in as many games, FSC produced a strong finish to the opening half of play, with 3-pointers by freshman
Taneece Wooden (Freeport, N.Y.) and Romo-Leroux, along with a put-back layup at the buzzer by sophomore
Victoria Kantzian (Staten Island, N.Y.), providing for an 8-2 spread over the final 45 seconds to send the Rams into halftime with a 48-30 lead.
Farmingdale State's largest lead of the night came 2:26 into the resumption of play at 52-30, when senior
Emily Pohalski (Huntington, N.Y.) knocked down a pair of free throws after being fouled on the fast break. The Rams did not allow the Gryphons to get any closer than 12 points the rest of the way, as the visitors evened up the teams' home-and-home series on the season.
Mendoza finished 11-of-22 in field goal attempts and 2-of-3 from long range, while pulling in nine rebounds and tying with Wooden for the game-high with four steals apiece. Wooden registered 13 points while corralling seven boards, with Romo-Leroux coming off the bench to finish with nine points on 4-of-9 shooting. Kantzian (2-of-4 3FG) and
Emily Pohalski checked in with eight points apiece, while junior
Gemma Pohalski (Huntington, N.Y.) filled the stat sheet once again with six points, a game-high 12 caroms and two assists. The Rams' defense forced 24 SLC turnovers on the night, and was efficient in recording 27 points in transition.
Head coach
Mark Dellecave's Farmingdale State squad is back in action Thursday night (Jan. 25), when it plays host to Yeshiva University in a 7 p.m. tip-off.
